This invention relates to vehicles and to conversion apparatus and methods for changing the front suspension of a vehicle.
It is often necessary to utilize a vehicle that can traverse difficult terrain, as well as operate well on roads. Fourwheel drive vehicles are often employed, but they weigh and cost much more than comparable two-wheel drive vehicles, provide considerably poorer mileage in both off-road and on-road travel, and provide poor shock absorption due tho their rigid single front axle. When it is desired to adapt the front end of a two-wheel drive vehicle for difficult terrain, one procedure is to cut-away the body around the front wheel well or to remount the body several inches higher on the frame, so that larger, high floatation tires can be mounted on the front axles. However, the frame itself limits the wheel size, turning radius, and clearance. A longer spring and shock absorber can be used to increase the height of the frame above the wheels, but this produces negative camber that wears the outside of the tires during on-road travel, and also produces negative caster. The negative camber can be corrected by considerably rebending the front axles, but this results in less sideward tire clearance and weakens the axle. A simple conversion kit that could be easily installed, without requiring drastic rebending of axles or other vehicle parts, and which provided large ground clearance, large tire height clearance, large tire width clearance, and large axle travel, would be of considerable value.